Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

Lib2011-035

Incident date

March 17, 2011

Location

كرزاز, Kerzaz, Misrata, Libya

Geolocation

32.300918, 15.088863 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

Two civilians from the same family were reportedly killed by Gaddafi forces tank shelling in the Kerzaz neighbourhood of Misurata.

An Amnesty International investigation found: “Two other families were shot at in similar circumstances as they were fleeing Kerzaz in their vehicles on 17 March. In both cases, family members were killed and injured. Tahar Abu Shibah, a 46-year-old father of nine, and his oldest daughter Mona, aged 21, were killed when their car came under fire. One of his relatives, who was in another car, told Amnesty International:

“We left in three cars, at about 10pm, I was driving the first car, and Tahar was behind. He was driving and Mona was sitting beside him and at the back were Tahar’s wife, his son, his nephew and two other children from the family. At a certain point we saw a tank in front of us, quite close. ‘They started to shoot from the tank and I turned back and managed to get away, but Tahar and Mona were hit several times. Tahar was killed on the spot; we got Mona to hospital but she died when we got there.'”

The incident occured at approximately 10:00 pm local time.

The victims were named as:

Family members (2)

46 years old male killed
21 years old female killed

Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]

Reports of the incident mention the neighbourhood of Kerzaz (كرزاز) in the district of Misurata (مصراتة). The generic coordinates for this neighbourhood are: 32.300918, 15.088863. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

  • Reports of the incident mention the neighborhood of Kerzaz (كرزاز) in the district of Misurata (مصراتة).

    Imagery:
    Google Earth

Summary

  • Strike status
    Single source claim
  • Strike type
    Artillery
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    2
  • (1 woman1 man)
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Weak
    Single source claim, though sometimes featuring significant information.

Sources (1) [ collapse]

Summary

  • Strike status
    Single source claim
  • Strike type
    Artillery
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    2
  • (1 woman1 man)
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Weak
    Single source claim, though sometimes featuring significant information.

Sources (1) [ collapse]